ECCO Information on COVID-19
Due to the urgency, ECCO gathered a group of gastroenterologists with special interest in Opportunistic Infections and infectious disease experts, in order to provide on a regular basis a guidance to the physicians of the ECCO community.
This guidance shall not replace any national recommendations from health care authorities but must be understood as an additional piece of information that will be updated when necessary based on our better understanding of this novel disease.
Similarly, the following guidance is not accompanied by any ECCO recommendations.
Image courtesy of CDC
ECCO Informative Expert Interviews
Publication of weekly editions
This Informative Expert Interview format is based on an interview by gastroenterologists and experts in infectious disease from various places in Europe and reviewed by the COVID-19 Taskforce.
This taskforce is composed of members of the Opportunistic Guidelines Consensus (Stephan Vavricka, Torsten Kucharzik, Jean-Francois Rahier), Members of the ECCO Governing Board (Britta Siegmund and Fernando Magro), a surgical expert (Michel Adamina as S-ECCO Committee Chair) and infectious disease experts (Cândida Manuela Ferreira de Abreu, Eithne McMahon, Thomas Schneider, Nathalie Viget). All Members of the ECCO Governing Board do have reviewer status of this project.
Image: © ECCO
6th Expert Interview of April 28, 2020 - Ferdinando D'Amico
5th Expert Interview of April 14, 2020 - Laurent Beaugerie, Cândida Abreu, Torsten Kucharzik
4th Expert Interview of April 3, 2020 - Alessandro Repici, Stephan Vavricka, Nathalie Viget
3rd Expert Interview of March 27, 2020 - Michael David Kappelman, Ryan Ungaro
2nd Expert Interview of March 20, 2020 - Liang-Ru Zhu, Ren Mao, Gionata Fiorino, Thomas Schneider
1st Expert Interview of March 13, 2020 - Cândida Abreu
IOIBD Updates
IOIBD latest news on Covid-19 and IBD
A global initiative from the International Organization for the study of IBD (IOIBD) aims to record timely proven cases of COVID-19 infection in our IBD patient. We encourage IBD clinicians worldwide to report ALL cases of COVID-19 in their IBD patients, regardless of severity (including asymptomatic patients detected through public health screening). Reporting a case to this Surveillance Epidemiology of Coronavirus) Under Research Exclusion (SECURE)-IBD registry should take approximately 5 minutes. Please report only confirmed COVID-19 cases, and report after sufficient time has passed to observe the disease course through resolution of acute illness and/or death. With the collaboration of our entire IBD community, we will rapidly be able to define the impact of COVID-19 on patients with IBD and how factors such as age, comorbidities, and IBD treatments impact COVID outcomes. This project, including a summary of all data collected to date, will be accessible following the link: https://covidibd.web.unc.edu/
Further References
1. WHO - For the latest situation reports and technincal guidance on COVID-19, please visit the website of the World Health Organization.
2. EMA - EMA and its partners in the European medicines regulatory network are closely monitoring the potential impact of the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on pharmaceutical supply chains into the European Union (EU). No reports of current shortages or supply disruptions of medicines marketed in the EU due to this outbreak have been received at this point. As the public health emergency develops, shortages or disruptions cannot be excluded.
The EU (EMA, the European Commission and national competent authorities in the Member States) have organised the first meeting of the EU Executive Steering Group on shortages of medicines caused by major events to discuss measures aimed at addressing the impact of the outbreak of COVID-19 on the supply of medicines in the EU. The mandate of this group is to provide strategic leadership for urgent and coordinated action within the EU in case a crisis caused by major events, such as the COVID-19 outbreak, risks impacting the supply of medicinal products for human and veterinary use.
In the context of COVID-19, the group will identify and coordinate EU-wide actions to protect patients when medicines in the EU are at risk of supply shortage, e.g. due to a temporary lockdown of manufacturing sites in areas affected by COVID-19 or travel restrictions impacting shipment. The group will also ensure that patients and healthcare professionals across the EU are kept informed in a consistent and transparent manner about the risks and the remedial actions taken.
For more information on the EU Executive Steering Group and the actions already taken, please click here.
For more information on the European regulatory system for medicines, please click here (brochure available in all languages).